Feed your need for SF & Fantasy
Last year I made a similar post. Before I set down my goals for 2019, let’s see how I did: [2018] In April, my wife is expecting our second son. I hope to make sense of life with two kids running around. [2018] I’d like to get back to the gym, or at least, feel […]
As I’ve mentioned before, there are many characters in The Silk Betrayal. I’m not going to go through and introduce every one of them. But I’d like to highlight a few here and introduce them to you:RashulRashul is pure charisma. He’s the Beto O’Rourke*…
I’ve gone through a bit of a hibernation period as a harper. Not that I haven’t been performing and teaching, but before I started on my Christmas repertoire, I noticed that practicing had become a chore. I wasn’t looking forward to it the …
The Religions of Eghsal Valley
I’m part of several different online fantasy writing communities. One topic that comes up periodically in worldbuilding discussions is how to handle religion in our imaginary worlds. I’ve always answered that I’m not the least bit interested in any sort of divine reality behind the stories—keep the story focused on the human characters, not whatever gods/goddesses there might be behind the scenes. And leave that unresolved, behind a veil of uncertainty. What does interest me, though, and is part of making a believable world is what the characters within it believe and how that affects the actions they take.
If you look over all my writing, you’d see a wide range of religious ideas and a wide range of character interactions to those ideas (from largely ignoring them to them being a character’s driving force).
Among the people of Eghsal Valley there are three main religions, all three of which place fire as the central source of reality.
The most powerful of these is the pantheonic religion with its powerful, high-caste priests and its temples. This is the state religion, as much as there is one. While it views the fire of reality as central and all powerful, its primary focus is on the gods and goddesses who influence how the fire affects the world as humans know it. There are many deities, some particular to a geographical feature or location, but here are some of the main ones:
The priests of this religion exert their influence over the whole valley, well beyond their numbers.
The second religion is the Enshi religion. It is looked down on by the priests and their followers as heretical, as it values the fire itself but has no use for any deities between the world and the fire. In the capital city of Romnai, where the priests are strong and the temple powerful, the Enshi religion is especially discriminated against. To the west, especially among the fishing families of Jarnur, it is much more accepted, and those of the two religions live at peace. The followers of the Enshi religion have no temples or priests but take a more mystical view of the fire. Using their cord-like belts and a series of ritualized movements, they attempt to be united with the fire.
The third religion is a mystery religion of the soldiers, especially the wolf jati soldiers who wander the valley far from the cities to keep the people safe. For them the fire is central, but not as something to be venerated. Instead, the fire is their rival. They challenge themselves, measure themselves against the fire in feats of strength. They worship those who triumph within their sacred rites. And when they succeed, they worship themselves.
The characters of The Silk Betrayal come from all of these religions. Some are deeply influenced by their beliefs in how to approach the fire of reality. Some are largely indifferent. But these three religions and the interactions among them form a significant part of the backdrop to the novel’s story.
Happy Boxing Day, (belated) Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Wonderful Winter Solstice … whatever you choose to celebrate or ignore, I wish it all to you with a homemade candied cherry on top. I’ve been almost radio silence on this blog for mos…
The third principal character I’d like to introduce is Prince Jasfer Talai, one of the Thirty Princes who rule the valley. That makes him one of the thirty most powerful people in the entire known world…but that responsibility rests light on him—for …
When I began writing seriously, I was a prologue skeptic. Too many fantasy novels I’d read or browsed in the bookstore/library had unnecessary prologues, often prologues with a poorly written poem-cum-prophecy or with a dump of worldbuilding informatio…
I’ve lost count of the number of headlines and interviews in the last year which lay out the case that Bitcoin may well be a bust, but “blockchain technology” will still transform the world. Here is a representative Forbes headline (but I am certain you’ve seen plenty yourself if you read financial headlines or watch […]
Another break from my long-windedness today to simply admire the cover art of the novel. We went through a variety of suggestions for the cover. Usually I’m a fan of a more landscape-focused cover, and we went through a few possibilities in that vein, …
Tolkien once gave a now-famous talk about how his impulse to create languages had always been a sort of secret vice for him—and he suspected for a small but passionate number of others. I’ve always admired Tolkien’s language creation, but I am also wel…